Katherine
Tai, who leads the federal office of the United States Trade Representative
(USTR), specifically discussed steel and aluminum imports into Mexico that may
then move without proper country of origin labels to the U.S., according to
that agency.
After
a late September meeting between Tai and Mexico’s Secretary of Economy Raquel
Buenrostro, the topic was the first one mentioned in a press release issued by
the USTR recapping the dialog.
Monitoring
and preventing “triangular” trading involving tariffed or sanctioned metals
products being trans-shipped through Mexico has been an issue for several
years.
A 2016 investigation by
the Wall Street Journal portrayed
Chinese aluminum producer China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd. using a location in
Mexico to filter tariff-free metal from there to the U.S.
Several
people tied to that company were convicted about five years later for
another aluminum import method the U.S. Department of Justice considered to be
scheming to avoid payment of $1.8 billion in import duties.
In
2023, tariffs remain on Chinese aluminum, but they have been joined by a
whopping 200 percent duty placed on Russian-made aluminum after that nation
invaded Ukraine early last year. The U.S. also has imposed a 70 percent duty on
Russian pig iron and some other Russian iron and steel products.
Steel
from China, meanwhile, remains subject to a 25 percent tariff when entering the
U.S. directly, while aluminum has a 10 percent duty level.